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Steven LaTourette said voters haven't demanded enough from their representatives

WASHINGTON — A Republican congressman who’s retiring in frustration over political gridlock said he hopes the institution doesn’t have to hit “rock bottom” before people learn to work together.

Ohio’s Steven LaTourette told MSNBC it’s more difficult for a reasonable person to get re-elected to Congress because “the red districts are turning redder and the blue districts are turning bluer.”

The red-versus-blue theory came to prominence when political analysts began breaking down the electoral map in terms of blue states as Democratic-leaning and red states as Republican. LaTourette said today that voters haven’t demanded enough. He said when Congress failed to make a deal on budget cuts, quote, “I didn’t get one phone call. I didn’t get one email.”

He said people should have been asking, “ ‘What’s wrong with these chuckleheads?’ ”